NADA has released an important article today entitled, The Fallacy of Flats, which cautions dealers that lender programs that pay dealers a flat fee for arranging financing for consumers do NOT eliminate the dealer’s risk of violating fair credit laws.Source: NADA Regulatory Affairs

Three months after announcing the start of a safety recall that has swelled to include 2.6 million cars, General Motors has agreed to pay the federal government $35 million -- the maximum penalty -- for failing to report the potentially deadly defect earlier.Source: Detroit Free Press

Dealership service managers are complaining about a rusty old clunker that's gumming up their operations: America's vocational education system. Traditional schools are steering more students toward college with curricula heavy on science, math and technology. Meanwhile, service managers say, neglected vocational and industrial arts programs are turning out a generation of auto mechanics whose skills aren't keeping pace with the cars they're assigned to fix. "The testing offered in many
states to become a certified auto mechanic does not coincide with what is being done in today's auto shop," says Rick Castanos, parts and service director at Varsity Lincoln in Wixom, Mich., and Varsity Ford in Ann Arbor, Mich. "It's dated testing. ... The level of questions they have is based on vehicles that date back to the 1970s and '80s." The result is a skills gap that is making it difficult for dealerships to find and retain qualified mechanics, and for new graduates to
find work. Source: Automotive News

The dam has broken. North American vehicle production has grown to the point where it's no longer enough for suppliers to run an extra shift to keep up with customer demand. After years of dragging their feet, companies have no choice but to build or expand factories -- and that's precisely what they're doing. Just like automakers, suppliers are investing big sums in brick and mortar. Source: Automotive News

The Chinese billionaire who bought Fisker Automotive Holdings Inc. at a bankruptcy auction is planning to build a new slate of electric-drive cars in the U.S., challenging Tesla Motors Inc. on its home turf. Lu Guanqiu, the chairman and founder of China's Wanxiang Group Corp., plans to manufacture electric cars in the U.S. and ultimately in China, he said in his first extensive interview since prevailing in a February bidding war for Fisker's assets. Source: Bloomberg

Google's self-driving car has never driven in the snow, gets puzzled by parking lots and cannot comprehend the hand signals from a traffic cop in an intersection. For all its cameras, lasers and sensors, the car of the future still can't do all the things that human drivers can. And yet, Google has come so far so fast with its 5-year-old experiment in autonomous driving that members of the self-driving team are now speaking more confidently than ever before about the next phase of its
ambitious research project: moving the technology out of tricked-out test vehicles and into real-world cars and trucks. Source: Automotive News

Come ride with me in a time machine back to 1949. No, not Doc Emmett Brown's flux capacitor-equipped DeLorean DMC-12 - but the original 1949 VW Beetle Type 1. This year marks the 65th anniversary of the iconic Bug's appearance on these shores. In the decades since, the Beetle has become an icon: The most recognizable silhouette in all of Autodom, a symbol of the hippie movement, and car that spawned the wildly popular Love Bug movie and TV series. Source: The Detroit News

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